George Pataki

George Pataki (24 June 1945-) was Governor of New York (R) from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2006, succeeding Mario Cuomo and preceding Eliot Spitzer.

Biography
George Pataki was born in Peekskill, New York on 24 June 1945, and he became a lawyer after graduating from Yale University and the Columbia Law School. From 1981 to 1984, he served as Mayor of Peekskill, and he served in the New York State Assembly from 1985 to 1994. In 1995, he was elected Governor of New York as the Republican Party candidate, and he was elected to three consecutive terms. Pataki supported tax cuts, made cuts in education and health care funding, increased the state's credit rating, supported the creation of Native American casinos in upstate New York, supported a woman's right to choose, supported gay rights (while opposing same-sex marriage), expanded healthcare to the poor, made environmental preservation a major goal of his, and vetoed increases to education spending. In 2006, Eliot Spitzer was elected as his successor, and Pataki unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination during the 2016 presidential election.